Justin Marshall admits to ‘a bit of a concern’ over delay in All Blacks coaching appointment and provides theory on reason for hold up
The All Blacks form a huddle ahead of a Test and ex-New Zealand scrum-half Justin Marshall (inset).
The fact that the All Blacks are still without a coach is “a bit of a concern” for Justin Marshall, who believes that settling on a coaching group is a sticking point for New Zealand Rugby (NZR).
The governing body is currently searching for Scott Robertson’s successor, but that process is now set to move into a third month following the previous head coach’s dismissal in mid-January.
There were suggestions that NZR would unveil the new All Blacks boss last week, but it has been confirmed that they will not make that announcement until March.
Legendary All Blacks scrum-half Marshall admitted to being frustrated by the delay in making that appointment and offered a theory on why the governing body have not filled the position yet.
While Jamie Joseph and Dave Rennie have emerged as the favourites to replace Robertson, Marshall believes that deciding on the right group of assistant coaches is what is delaying the appointment of the new All Blacks head coach.
This, after Robertson and his predecessor, Ian Foster, both lost the services of assistant coaches during their respective tenures in charge of the All Blacks.
“If you’re going to pull the trigger, you’ve got to have a succession plan in mind,” Marshall told The Good, The Bad & The Rugby podcast. “And quite obviously, they would have had some semblance of the direction they wanted to go in, the New Zealand Rugby Union that is.
“And obviously, they have to do their due diligence and go down the right pathway, which is allow people to apply. That’s just part of any organisation, that you have to follow that particular structure to make sure that everybody gets a fair and equal chance to be a candidate, so they have to do that.
‘It doesn’t happen like that’
“Regardless, they can’t just go: ‘You know, right, that coach has gone, this coach is coming in’. It doesn’t happen like that. So I think they probably would have had some form of idea of what direction they wanted to go in, because they made such a rash decision to sack Razor (Robertson).
“So, the fact that it’s still dragging out is a bit of a concern. I’m hoping that the reason that it’s dragging out is because at the end of the day, with Foster, he lost two assistant coaches.
“He lost Brad Mooar and John Plumtree. And he had to replace them out of his original coaching group. Scott Robertson lost Leon MacDonald in the first year.
“(Then) Jason Holland didn’t renew (his contract). So, he was losing assistant coaches. So, what they need to do is make sure that due diligence that they’re doing is when they pick this coaching team, it’s a team that sticks.
“Because that hasn’t happened. It hasn’t happened in the last six years. And you don’t want that unsettling nature for players and for a coaching group where you’ve got people involved in there being unhappy and moving on or not doing their job effectively.
‘It’s no good’
“So maybe that’s what they’re doing, that whoever the candidate is, whether it’s Jamie Joseph, I believe, or Dave Rennie are the two leading candidates, that the people underneath them have to stick and have to be happy. Because we can’t keep having assistant coaches leaving the coaching group. It’s no good.”
Marshall feels whoever becomes the All Blacks’ new boss will not have a settling in period when he takes over the coaching reins. “And you know what the other side of it is? Like, if you’re that candidate, and let’s say it’s Jamie Joseph and Dave Rennie, and we’ll even throw Joe Schmidt in there, because they all might have looked at it, I don’t know,” he said.
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“But it is a daunting prospect, an exciting one. Very exciting. But coming in as the All Blacks coach now in the two years that the All Blacks have, like if you think about this calendar year with the World Rugby (Nations) Championship that’s coming in in July, starting in July and then finishing in November, with a final over there (at Allianz Stadium, Twickenham) and then the Greatest Rivalry tour.
“Then a World Cup the following year. You’ve got to come in hot, man. You can’t afford to say: ‘Oh, we’re just going to feel our way through this year and maybe things will come right’. It’s like: ‘Mate, you can’t do that, man’. You’ve got to hit the ground running and be ready to rock and roll.”